Comment Change the Conversation (Score 1) 192
Infrastructure is boring and complicated. It's like a bridge: it takes smart people, good engineers and science to build one, and then ten-thousand people a day drive across it and most never notice. To really appreciate it, you need to have a great deal of specialized knowledge.
Your management doesn't care. They care if the bridge falls down, but not if it stays up. So, change the conversation. I bet there's a ton of stuff you do that they -do- care about. Have you saved money? Have you delivered a new business intelligence metric? Have you made the office environment nicer to work in? Have you automated a process and saved some labor hours? Have you made sure all the higher-ups have the best new tech gadgets?
Your management cares about the core business operations. Learn from them what they think about, what's on their minds. Read the same trade journals they do. Learn the buzzwords. Then proactively think of IT solutions to business problems. If your IT department isn't cash-positive, think about how it could be.
If all you really do is infrastructure, you're boring and replaceable. Strategically locate yourself closer to the center of the business, get off the fringes, and participate. That's what will get you seen and appreciated.
